China's Defand Therapeutics has signed a research collaboration and licence agreement with Roche to discover and develop novel molecular-glue degraders (MGDs) against multiple oncology and immunology targets, with Defand contributing its high-throughput degradation platform and Roche taking projects forward through preclinical and clinical development and retaining global exclusive commercialisation rights.

Defand receives upfront cash, potential development and regulatory milestones, as well as tiered royalties on net sales, while Roche gains an option to expand the collaboration to additional targets, extending a molecular-glue dealmaking wave in which more than a dozen multinationals have partnered with degrader biotechs since 2022, including Roche's earlier pact with Monte Rosa Therapeutics.

Defand's differentiation is breadth of target class: its platform runs parallel screening across cytoplasmic, nuclear, transmembrane and viral proteins, already covers cell lines for more than 100 clinically relevant targets including traditionally undruggable proteins, and pairs them with focused compound libraries for multiple E3 ligases, letting degraders induce neo-interfaces that ubiquitinate and clear pathogenic proteins.